Hello guys. I hope you're all doing well. I'm here to talk to you a little bit about my time at Bennington and the plan. Because when I was coming here, the plan to me, it sounded very confusing. So I thought I would talk to you a bit about my experience and what it's been like.

When I came to Bennington, I had no idea what I wanted to study. I thought I would do Physics or science-related. I still work in the science department, so I still do Physics, but I mainly do Physics-related things. I did study Physics when it came to my first year, but I also started studying Computer Science, which is what I now am studying. I'm studying Computer Science and Animation though. I had heard about Computer Science before coming, never tried it. And when I had my first class, I just completely fell in love with it. I think what I enjoyed the most about it is being able to create technically anything with enough patience and just being able to share with my friends, have them try it, really share it with anyone and have them try it or have them use it and be helpful, like help them solve a problem. That's just really amazing. And I guess that's also a little bit why I enjoy Animation. Because Animation is a bit - it's hard to say that it has a creative side and Computer Science doesn't because Computer Science actually requires a lot of creativity, working out problems, like logic, problem solving. But I guess my Animation work has a bit more freedom, while my Computer Science, just for now, is more centered in tools and fixing stuff, getting somewhere more specific.

But like I said, when I came here, I had no idea, and what I really enjoy about Bennington is whether you don't know or whether you know, that's not a problem. And not only that, but you can mix your subjects, take pieces of it to create exactly what you want. And that's what the plan is about. The plan is a process where we create basically your majors. We technically all graduate with a Bachelor of Arts, but while we are here, we get the chance to mix all of the majors so you can take really anything. Dance, Music, Physics, Chemistry, and just bring it together. And that is what the plan is about. The plan is a process to guide us through our time here and decide how we want to bring together all these things that we want to study. At the same time, you sometimes don't need to. If you want to study languages and Computer Science, they don't have to come together. Maybe you just want to learn Chinese and code that, they don't always have to. But if you want to, the plan is there to help you do that.

So the plan has, I mean, it's a long process, but we have a bunch of essays we have to write. And once you reach your second year, you get a committee assigned to you. A committee is formed by teachers, or professors, excuse me, that either taught something that you want to study or that you've studied, maybe professors that you've worked with, professors that know you, that can help you continue and plan out what you have to study. And this is really nice because you have first hand input of things, people that have lived what you're probably going through. So from my Computer Science teachers telling me I think you would like this or I see you are very interested in this. Why don't you look at this paper and help me out. Then I remember this moment with my Animation teacher who's also in my committee, part of my committee. And we were doing this project on the classical 3D 2D 3D, which is taking 2D images or 2D material, bringing them in the 3D world, whether it's animating movement and then laser cutting it, and then taking picture by picture until you do the stop motion and have this movement. And then back into 2D and editing it, bringing it all together. I remember going to her and asking, "Hey, I'm interested in puppets, and I'm thinking I could do this 3D design in the computer and then 3D print it." I also had a class about 3D modeling with her earlier that year. And then she told me, "Well, the only thing is I'm not sure we have enough time to do that because 3D models can be a bit finicky when printing. But I think you should keep it in mind for your next project." She turned around to speak to a colleague, and then she came back two seconds later and told me, "You know what, I want you to try it. I really want you to do it. Now do it, don't even think about it, just do it." And it's nice just to have them around, not only to help you, but they really look into giving you this push to help you out and continue working on your projects. And I found it's a great support, and it's a great thing to have. I could talk about this for ages, but I think I'll just leave you with that. Hopefully, this makes it a bit more clear, if at all, and I hope you have a good time.